It’s over a week now that Israel’s Prime Minister-elect (as well as outgoing Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu has been breaking his head trying to find an answer, along with his senior advisers, to the question that is on the mind of so many Israelis these days: Will they or won’t they enlist in the army? Needless to say that “they” are the thousands of ultra-Orthodox men who, for more than 60 years, have been exempted from equal sharing of the military service burden according to the principle of Torato Omanuto — that Torah study is their full-time occupation. The equal sharing of the burden is the slogan that has turned out to be the trump card of the recent election. However, it seems that underlying the heated — and at times, even fiery — controversy over the issue of the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is a no less, and perhaps even far more fateful question — that of the integration of the ultra-Orthodox in the workforce in Israel.

The questions whether the IDF is really interested in recruiting thousands of ultra-Orthodox men and, supposing that it actually has any need for all those draft eligible ultra-Orthodox, whether it can cope with their en masse recruitment, have already been discussed at length on this website. It should be noted, however, in this context that in view of the deep budget deficit, which calls for the reduction of the government expenditure, the defense budget is bound to be once again at the focus of the budget debate, and rightly so.

As matters now stand, the Ministry of Finance is planning a deep cut in the defense budget on the scale of four billion shekels [more than $1billion]. Given these figures, it is hard to see how the IDF can cope, even if in terms of budget alone, with the need to simultaneously integrate into the army thousands of ultra-Orthodox recruits, many of them married and with children. By way of illustration, it may be noted that the direct cost of a married ultra-Orthodox soldier with children could amount to several thousand shekels per month due to the extra pay given to married soldiers with children, while the wages of regular service soldiers come to a few hundred shekels at the most.

In terms of the Israeli economy, the debate over the issue of the ultra-Orthodox is far from being merely theoretical or academic. Rather, actual measures have to be taken, without delay, to deal with the issue. And while the question of whether or not the IDF needs thousands of ultra-Orthodox soldiers to maintain the security of Israel has prompted sharp dispute in Israeli society, when it comes to the labor market, there are no differences of opinion. It is clear beyond doubt that the ultra-Orthodox are essential to the sustainability of Israeli economy. If the ultra-Orthodox, in particular ultra-Orthodox men, fail to find their place in the labor market, and in vast numbers, the local economy will no longer be able to sustain them.